Deer & Deer Hunting Forums: White Tail Deer Hunting Forum

The Committee on Natural Resources and Sporting Heritage will be holding a public hearing on a new proposed crossbow bill (Assembly Bill -194), on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 417 North (GAR Hall), Wisconsin State Capital. Information can be found at… http://docs.legis.wi.gov/raw/cid/970404

Wilmer/Rancid/Retch, great wording? Well done? Certainly not appreciated by most WI Bowhunters. Rather convenient that you were forced to resign after your illegal deer kill incident on that spike opening day of the gun season, after placing illegal bait during the bow season. Now some can blame WBH for not being there for them on this issue and you can brag that you weren't a part of it so couldn't defend, right? Wait a minute, though, even when with them you were for this carefully worded bill. Of course you, an owner of three crossbows, were. Funny how someone supposedly so against full inclusion feels that this is any different. As they're saying on Bowsite, lipstick on a pig!!!!

Crossbow, bait pile and a six pack of beer - perfect recipe for getting a spike and it will help violators (night shooting with those red dot scopes). The poor deer don't have a chance with this combination unless the "sportsman" is a complete knuckhead.

Huge step backwards in regard to our image as hunters. Guys like Retch will be rewarded with laws that support their practices.

A bunch of young bucks may die with this change. The only hope is the quality of the knuckhead pulling the trigger.

If you can't tell, I hope the bill fails and gets revised to 55 or older

Dan Salmon wrote: Maybe I'm an idiot, but why should archers get a crossbow tag at half price just because they've already bought an archery tag, or vice versa?

Its not another tag. If you buy a bow lic, you can get an approval to also use a crossbow. If you instead bought a crossbow lic you can also get approval to us a bow . Only one buck can be killed with a "stringed" weapon but you would be able to hunt with either.

Dan Salmon wrote:And why wouldn't Wilmer/Retch think this is a great deal? He's got another buck tag for half price, now all he'll have to do is watch out for wardens better.

Nobody gets a"another buck tag" WI is still a two buck state (that is if you are also a gun hunter) You will be able to kill one buck under your gun deer lic and one buck with you bow lic (or you could instead use your crossbow lic rather than your bow lic) but you cannot kill a buck with a crossbow lic in the crossbow deer season and another with your bow lic in the bow season. Once your "string" killed buck is tagged, you are done hunting bucks by string. You have to pick the weapon and the season.

I read a comment on another forum that made this all seem very sensible so I will post it here.

"todays amendment to the bill. Amendment #1 is now published. The bill used to read as follows

“If the department establishes an open season for hunting deer, elk, small game, wild turkey, or bear with a bow and arrow but not with a firearm, the department shall also open that season for hunting with a crossbow”

This led some to believe incorrectly that crossbows would be inclusive within the Wisconsin bow season so it was proper to clear up that misunderstanding with the first amendment. Now the bill reads as follows so that all might know that crossbows are NOT included under the bow season and so that the separation is not misunderstood and so that statutorily, its defined that WI will have two separate seasons, (a bow season and a crossbow season) and NOT “united in one season” as some incorrectly assumed. The bill is amended to read:

““If the department establishes an open season for hunting deer, elk, small game, wild turkey, or bear with a bow and arrow but not with a firearm, the department shall also establish a concurrent open season for hunting the respective game with a crossbow”.

WI will have bowhunters and it will have crossbowers and each will have a separate season and registration and tag and separate equipment statutes (thanks to last years bill which statutorily defined what is a bow and what is a crossbow as well as what is a bowhunter and what is a crossbower to cement that separation.) Wisconsin will have a gun deer season for gun hunters, a ML deer season for ML hunters, a bow season for bowhunters and now a crossbow season for crossbow hunters. All types of hunters with all types of different weapons will be able to chase deer to their hearts content separate of one another in all statutory terms and regulations. No one season is negatively impacted by the other or lumped together and will stand on its own and be adjusted or modified based solely on its own effectiveness.

I applaud this bill and the creation of a new type of season outside the bow season and the ability of crosbowers to hunt deer in their new season. Bowhunters and bowhunting is unchanged and unaltered in the dairy state and a new type of hunting is created. Well done indeed. I fully support creating this separate means for crossbowers to enjoy hunting with their weapon and maintaining the separate WI archery deer season. Everybody wins and now the state will have the ability to manage both seasons based on their separate merits and all types of deer hunters wil have clean data by which monitor the effectiveness. How could anybody dislike such a great bill?

This bill does allow for two bucks to be killed with a bow and arrow or two bucks to be killed with a crossbow but you will have to buy a gun deer license to pull that off. Thanks to last years lesser weapons bill that allowed bows and crossbows to be used during the gun deer season and under the gun deer hunting approval, hunters could buy a gun deer license but hunt deer instead with a bow or a crossbow during the 9 day gun deer season. so if you are a two season hunter and buy a bow license, you could kill one buck with your bow in the bow season and another buck with a bow under the gun deer license during the 9 day gun season.

Likewise, if you are a crossbow hunter, you will now be able to kill a buck in the (soon to be created) crossbow season and then during the gun deer season use a crossbow instead of a gun and kill a 2nd buck using your gun deer tag. Either way, you only get two buck tags in WI.

If you are only a bowhunter in the bow season or only a crossbow hunter in the crossbow season, you will only get one buck tag. You get to pick if you kill it with your bow or with your crossbow.

If you are only a gun deer season hunter in WI, your gun buck tag can be filled using a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun, a crossbow or a bow and arrow but you can only kill one buck in the gun deer season under your tag.

““If the department establishes an open season for hunting deer, elk, small game, wild turkey, or bear with a bow and arrow but not with a firearm, the department shall also establish a concurrent open season for hunting the respective game with a crossbow”.

con·cur·rent

Definition of CONCURRENT

1: operating or occurring at the same time

2 a : running parallel

b : convergent; specifically : meeting or intersecting in a point

3: acting in conjunction

Just wondering how a concurrent season means a separate season??? If I understand correctly you simply have to buy the proper license and tags for the weapon you are choosing to use. If the seasons are concurrent, then vertical bows and crossbows can be used to hunt during during the same time frame.... I don't see how this is a "separate" season.

Here in IL, during our firearms season you can use either a shotgun or a muzzleloader. Unless I'm mistaken, you buy a "firearms" permit and use your yearly hunting license. I can use either a shotgun or muzzleloader to kill deer during our 2 firearms seasons that total 7 days. I can also buy muzzleloader specific tags that I can use during the open season or during the extra muzzleloader only seasons. You can only use a muzzleloader tag on a deer killed with a muzzleloader during the open season. So, there are separate tags, and there are separate seasons for ML's, but during the open season you can use either a ML or a shotgun with the proper tag. This is what it sounds like the practical effect of the crossbow legislation says... unless I'm wrong, which happens....like once ever couple years or something.

"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." ~Fred Bear

If you were unable to attend the public hearing at the State Capital in regards to the proposed crossbow bill – Assembly Bill 194 and would like to watch/listen to the results of that hearing, feel free to watch/listen to it all on WisconsinEye at…